Has it really only been a week?!

Ok no I guess 9 days, but wow the Philippines has been amazing.

And I’m saying that 3 days after getting pretty bad food poisoning (at this point I’m kind of an expert on ranking severity), and the evening after spending a night in a pay by hour hotel. Obviously I have some ‘splaining to do…

Last we joined The Duo they were just returned from 2 nights in Batad hiking amongst stunning rice terraces. Immediately after that we hopped a local bus to Bontoc for perhaps my favorite bus ride of all time. We got to the bus stop an hour early only to be told that the bus wouldn’t be coming for 2 hours. Less than 10mins later the bus came around the corner and we hopped into surprisingly comfortable bench seats at the back. The next 2hrs were spent listening to good country music (I don’t know, or care, why, but the soundtrack in Php is much better than in Indo), as we drove along a road that skirted along the edge of VERY steep mountains. The road was in great condition and you could peer down the mountains, where they had blasted the road in there were easily 200ft drops in a matter of 5 horizontal feet, and the road was basically right on the edge. I absolutely loved it and was entertained the entire time! It almost felt, to me, like I was in the Andes, or how I always pictured the Andes.

A jeepney ride later (just as beautiful to me) we were into Sagada a mountain town that has, for the past 20-30 years, become a tourist spot. The vibe really reminded me of Lake Toba, but less developed; no less hippy however! The first night Steph and I just scouted out the town after finding a twin room with a shared hot water bath (though we were the only ones in the entire hotel) for $5/night! I was really impressed with the dramatic limestone formations and the sheer mountains as well as the pine trees and general cool, mountain climate.

The next morning we picked up a guide for some pretty intense caving. I was expecting more of a stroll through a hole in the ground glancing at stalagmites/-tites. Instead we were crawling through gaps that were tight for me, climbing up and down ropes, peering over perilous drops, wading through chest deep water inside the cave and generally trying not to fall to our deaths! Steph’s slip count was at least 3 times, once her tumble ended around my leg and another time our guide caught us just as she was about to fall off a 10 ft initial drop followed by many more. There were several times I had to just go and not think about it too much; there wasn’t really an alternative. The cave was really beautiful and the fact that you had to work to get there just made me appreciate it all the more! And all of that was without any harnesses, training/preparation or insurance and for $10! Not gonna get that in the US!

It was that night that I got sick unfortunately and I was out of commission for a day and a half; missing Steph’s trip to a nice looking waterfall, subsequent abduction by ‘devil-children’, and a delicious meal.

The following morning, still feeling a little weak and tired Steph and a Swiss guy we met set out the see the Hanging Coffins of Echo Valley. The coffins were interesting (how did they get some of those up there!), and we had seem some in the cave as well, but I found the limestone formations more interesting. After that Steph and I took a trek, got a bit lost, had to make a U-turn, but were rewarded with some beautiful views of the landscape (mountains, terraces, etc).

We chilled out that night and then took a bus first thing in the morning to Clark…which is where we reach the pay-by-hour hotel. In full disclosure this is a hotel chain that is fairly prevalent in Php and is very clean, simple, cheap, and logical (do you really use a whole day?), but the situation was sketchy because of the location: Clark, a former US Air Force Air Base, and easily the seediest place I have ever seen! The population along Fields Ave, was largely middle aged Euro men and young Asian girls…you figure it out.

We had come to Clark because we wanted to hike to a local volcano, but the prices were just a little too ridiculous and we were too last minute to properly plan. Instead we just spent the night in the actually very nice and cheap hotel before continuing on to Manila.

Some other quick notes that hopefully I will have time to explain later:

· Steph’s addiction to Yoghurt House in Sagada, particular their cookies

· I would like to do a driving tour of Northern Luzon, the region is beautiful, the weather nice, the people friendly, and the roads well-maintained.

· My nice-to-scam-tour of Manila

· I ate balut, a partially formed duck embryo

· Meeting Christina, a private museum owner in Sagada

· Some interesting introspection on my part.

I’ve been taking plenty of pics, but don’t have them up yet. At some point I will and I’ll let everyone know. Steph has also been taking a ton of videos so we’ll be sharing those somehow, sometime!

Ok that’s enough for now. Steph and I fly down south to Palawan tomorrow afternoon and the internet, as well as the electricity, will be even harder to come by so there may not be much more until we’re back on the 19^th.

Until then…!